Posted in Wartime: Letters Home From Abroad

By: Richard Knott

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Synopsis: The Second World War saw many people consigned to long periods of exile, far from home. How did the exiled keep in touch with home? Why were some exiles silent when others wrote frequently and at length? Posted in Wartime explores the nature of such exile and considers what could be written in diaries and letters, given that letters were censored and diaries were, at best, frowned upon. At the books heart are the stories of three very different exiles: a Liberty Ship captain; a doctor in the Royal Army Medical Corps; and an airman in Iraq and Palestine. Set alongside those are the experiences of a number of celebrated wartime exiles whose diaries and letters are both extensive and detailed, and whose stories loosely connect with the journeys of the three main protagonists; they include the travel writer Freya Stark, the photographer Cecil Beaton, and the playwright Nol Coward.* Exhibition of Cecil Beaton photography (of the Duchess of Devonshire and her set) at Chatsworth, March 2016 to January 2017.* The reopening of the British Postal Museum & Archive as The Postal Museum in London in 2017* 100th anniversary of the Imperial War Museum, London, 2017*75 years since the release of Noel Cowards film about the Navy at war, In Which We Serve (1942)* 75 years (on 15 April) since the authors father sailed to the Middle East in Winston Special convoy WS18* 100 years (in November 2017) since the Balfour Declaration (Middle East)* 70 years since Indian independence.